Pass on X Rebirth

After giving some time to X Rebirth I have decided it is in fact not worth playing. The game is nice to look at but little else at the moment. Many features are broken or glitch so often it's impossible to make progress. Features that aren't broken just aren't very fun. I often like a game that's a little rough around the edges, but this isn't just rough around the edges, it's straight up missing sizeable portions of what it needs to be considered a game.

On the plus side, EGOSOFT has been patching everyday and has already taken community feedback to heart and has planned some new/fixed features. This honestly should have been taken care of with alpha/beta testing. If you were planning on playing it, my advice, save your money and wait six months to a year, maybe it'll be fixed by then, and cheaper.

I'm off to mourn my $50 loss.

i have my copy waiting for my new laptop. i was initially really eager to play the game and even thought about giving it a go on my existing laptop. but the more i hear the more it looks like any delay in playing it will be a blessing in disguise.

it looks like they are patching it every day so maybe it will leave a better first impression when i do get around to playing it.

from reading around the impression i get is that underneath all the bugs is a good game though (bar some confusing menus) so hopefully the devs get it sorted.

Could see it a mile away. Well, I could.

I am not very surprised. Good advice on waiting until it's patched and cheaper, that was my plan all along.

Every X game has done this....shitty release, and end up being great years down the line after a million patches and mods

Its a sad day when $50 is spent and you try playing the game for a couple of days to find out you don't really like it. I think many people here feel like they have thrown their money away on a purchase they end up realizing was garbage.

Yeah I almost bought X-Birther when I come to find out I needed a joystick to play and the overall ratings for that game was around 5/10.

This and i just vomit in my mouth reading that last bit.

I saw it too, posted as much. Was hoping I was wrong but oh well. Will wait for it all to be fixed and grab it for $9.99.

Dev's dont care though, You've already given them your money.

That's why so many games dont have demos.

Are we still in the 90's where people don't have a clue on how to use the internet? You could do light research on Metacritc or Gamespot to see what other people are rating video games. If you dont want to reward a game developer for making a bad game, then its better if you were do research before you buy.

I really was enjoying this one.... I wasnt having a lot of the known issues, and looking forward to playing this weekend. Then patch 1.16 happened on Friday.

The patch literally broke the fast travel system. Everytime you used it the game froze upon leaving. Broke my game for the weekend. I hope this gets fixed.

I gave up on trying to buy/cell energy cells for the 100th time, or never being able to finish an escort mission because the freighter I'm escorting flies straight into a station and wedges itself between to storage tanks indefinitely and cannot progress. I feel like great things could be done with the game engine, but it's just not there.

The funny thing is I just finished the energy cell quest without a hitch. I heard it was bugged so I personally escorted my Trader for the whole trade. It went slow but smoothly.

Saved and closed shop for the day.... logged on the next day into version 1.16 and I was trapped in that Sector, could not disembark from any of the highways. Shame too I was really starting to get into it.

Anyway... heres to hoping they can shore up the loose ends.

Just wanted to clarify... that I checked tonight and the game is patched to version 1.17 and they fixed the fast travel bug.

Wait on X-Rebirth.

There's a good game underneath.

This seems like exactly the type of game to wait a year for the patches, then snag on sale. It looks very interesting to me.

@Marfoo:

definitely pass on this game.... it is probably one of the worst designed and least fun games i have played in the last 10 years. complete waste of money and a horrible stain on the otherwise phenomenal X universe.

the game is small too... like maybe 10% the size of past X games. it is literally 5 systems with 5 zones in each.... that is it.it is pathetic. i swear this game was meant to come to consoles, and somehow didnt make the cut or the devs gave up on that idea. the game works perfectly with a 360 controller but doesnt support joysticks? warning flags anyone?

That's a very general statement, and it's likely inaccurate in this case. The previous X games were very actively patched by Egosoft after their release. X2, for example, got some of it's biggest updates almost a year after its release.

While I'm confident that they'll patch the heck out of this game, I'm not sure it'll help in this case. They changed so many core gameplay elements from the previous games (for the worse) that I'm not sure patching will help. Several of the philosophical choices they have made (like dropping the SETA ability and no longer letting you pilot any ship you want) go against what made the previous games fun and they've already stated that they are not planning on fixing these issues because they were deliberate decisions.

-Byshop

@Byshop:

Yeah, I'm pretty sure anytime a develop says "Our last game was too complicated, we need to make it more accessible," it means they're going to dumb it down so much it's no longer fun. They didn't need to dumb down the old game, they just needed to make it more intuitive. Going from X3: Reunion to Terran Conflict or Albion Prelude was a step in the right direction. At least it made most commands available by just clicking on stations and ships and navigating menus whereas before you had to target via hotkey, open up menus via hotkey etc which was trial and error for what was available and had a steep learning curve.

I hope they can save the game, I really do. I think the engine has some potential that has yet to be tapped, but right now I'll just play something else until it gets to that point.

I said from the start it would be shit and wasdie deemed me a troll. It hurt my feelings. But reality kicked in and I was proven right. I feel very much redeemed like that fellow at the end of Shawshank who climbs though a pipe of shit towards the glorious thunderous rain.

I honestly don't know what the hell they were thinking with this game. I know they -said- they were trying to make it more accessible but I feel like the basically did the exact opposite. I could get around in X2 and up but I have no idea what I'm doing in this game, where I'm supposed to be going, how to advance the story, etc. The useful (albeit simplistic) 2D space map from the previous games has been replaced by a useless map, the radar has been removed, the targeting is all weird, and the new trading and crew systems are needlessly complex. I pre-bought this game because I know the series' history and it seemed like a pretty safe bet that it would be at least -ok-, but the end result is like a completely different (and crappier) game than its predecessors.

-Byshop

This is terribly sad. I was already put off by the odd ship physics and overly flashy weapon effects but now its confirmed as a sub par game. All the reviews point in the same direction, down. What can you do though? They shouldnt have rushed it or had poor quality control.

If it were just that it was rushed or the bugs alone, I would still be sticking by this game. However, they made some deliberate and stupid choices about what to change in their "reboot" that seem to demonstrate a complete lack of understanding about what fans liked about their games.

-Byshop

Ummm, somebody has to buy it before they can review it. According to your logic no one should buy it until a review comes out...in which case no one would ever have it to review it in the first place.

Don't talk if you have no clue what you're talking about. You must not of left Albion yet.

http://i.imgur.com/HqEr5CN.jpg

that is the map of the entire game.... its even less than what i said. four systems, three have four zones, and one has three. pathetically small compared to past X games.

what now asshat?

No where did I suggest to someone they shouldn't buy a video game before reading reviews. People could do what ever they want with their money.

Still, You have $50 in your hand and you want to buy a video game, but you are questioning it will be a good game. You then buy the video game to only find out it's total garbage you then get the feeling you threw your money away. What if you were to go on metacritic and look at the critic reviews to only find out it got 33/100 on average. Would you still be inclined to buy a video game if it got low review scores?

Im not saying you shouldn't buy a video game before doing light research. It is your choice on how you want to spend your money.

That sounds great but there is no metacritic until the game is released and people who bought it right away start posting reviews for you to make your decision with. I personally waited on this game and it paid off for me, so I practice what you are preaching. My point was you are calling out people for not checking reviews first when they are probably in the group who bought it as soon as it released and hooked us both up with the very reviews you are talking about. Kind of biting the hand that feeds you, so to speak.

This game blindsided people. It wasn't an "unknown quantity", it was the latest game in a solid series and the gameplay videos leading up to its release didn't show how horribly broken the game was. This is like pre-purchasing Assassin's Creed 5, only to get it on release to find out that it's now been turned into an accounting simulator.

-Byshop

kickstarter lol

You can still check out professional reviews - of which indicated to X-Rebirth being a poorly made game - by people who get paid to do so and therefore it's no loss to them. I agree with the other bloke, there's no reason to impulse buy when you can easily judge a game by the time of release. To think "Oh someone needs to be the first to play and review it." You might as well take that approach to everything you buy and goodbye cash.

The day I make my game buying decisions off of these idiots who write reviews professionally is the day I stop buying games.

So if all these professional reviews detect the same flaws and poor game design choices as each other and all give pretty poor scores, you wouldn't believe them? Even if they show the evidence on a video review?

the state of the game is very shocking, although i got my refund from steam earlier for it just in time for the sales :)

I would add here that while any recommendations - "professional" or otherwise - should be taken with a proverbial fistful of salt (*ahem* - considering difference of opinions and preferences), it would be wise to heed warnings about technical issues and such other problems that reduce the value of the product.

Considering X:Rebirth's purportedly many technical issues, I would say "buyer beware" about it.

What I am saying is I do not pay any attention to pro reviews, I don't even read them. I only go with player reviews. I do the same for all my purchases whether it be toilet paper or NASA rocket boosters. If I see 100 out of 125 people all posting the same thing I give it more weight than a couple of guys getting paid to do it.

I didn't even buy this game because I AM one of those who waited. My beef was with calling out those who bought it at release for not "researching" it, there was no negative press at all prior to this release that I saw. If it were not for them taking that risk the rest of us would not have known how bad the game was, so get off their backs already.

I haven't played the game yet (nor will I probably ever) based upon the reviews.. NOT because of bugs, because this dev is known for that, but the fact that they seemed to have taken out most of the depth in the game.. There seems to be some awful design decisions they made to appeal to a mass market that will not change no matter how many patches are released.. This is why YOU DO NOT PREORDER games any more people..

How did you get them to refund it?

took 3 responses from steam support to get it refunded to my steam wallet, i kept linking the poor scores with reviews that had to be aborted, linked the information from egosofts ceo about game breaking showstopping bugs, and pointed out lies on the steam store page about the game features, and mentioned the terrible performance and that the game was in a unfinished state and that there was no mention of it been early access etc :)

Mad props bro.